ASA Adjudication on R&D Design Ltd

Ad

A direct mailing, for silver and leather gifts, from R&D Design Ltd.

Issue

The complainant challenged the database practices of R&D Design Ltd, because they received the mailing despite having registered with the Mailing Preference Service (MPS).

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

R&D Design LTD (R&D) said they had purchased the complainant's details from a third party company. They submitted a copy of their instructions to that company which they said showed that they had specifically instructed them that data should be MPS suppressed. They said the same instructions applied to all their mailings.

R&D said they had ceased using that company because they had become concerned that mailings that they had paid for had not been sent. They believed the third-party company had now ceased trading.

Assessment

Upheld

The ASA noted that the CAP Code stated that it was the responsibility of marketers to ensure that their database practices were up-to-date and compliant and that all necessary steps had been taken to ensure that marketing communications were not sent to consumers who had asked not to receive them.

We noted that the complainant had registered with the MPS in early 2009 but had continued to receive mailings from R&D much later in 2009. We noted that we had not seen evidence of the database practices of the company to whom R&D had outsourced their mailing and that R&D were unable to explain how the recipient came to receive the mailings. We therefore concluded that R&D had not adhered to the database provisions of the CAP Code.

The mailing breached CAP Code clauses 43.9 and 43.13 (Database practice).

Action

We told R&D Design Ltd to ensure their mailing lists were accurate and up-to-date and screened against the MPS suppression file.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)